Blood and rain
by Catnipob
Summary: A Draco/Ginny one shot based on a dream I had a few nights back - some angst, some fluff weird combo! Kind of OOC and AU!


**A one shot… This was another dream I had, I've elaborated on it slightly but the whole plot from start to finish was put in my head as I slept… it's a bit angsty in places and there are some suggestions of sexual acts (no details though so I haven't given it too high a rating) but nothing too bad.  
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Ginny Weasley strode down the corridor of the Burrow, which was now a kind of guest house for waifs and strays. Her bare feet sank into the thick cream carpets, but she was too angry to appreciate the small piece of comfort which was so out of place in the slightly run-down building.

She was going to give that awful man a piece of her mind and nothing could distract her.

When she reached the green door at the top of the stairs, Ginny threw it open without hesitation, the movement of the air causing her bright red hair to waft around her freckled face. What she saw inside the homely bedroom stopped her only for a second, she had after all heard the rumours, but seeing it first hand was still shocking.

Draco Malfoy looked up from where he was standing; topless and slightly sweaty, holding a dark skinned naked young lady tightly to his chest. On the bed, Ginny's brother Charlie sat, his chin resting listlessly against his shoulder, next to another unclothed female who was curled into a ball and had obviously just been woken by Ginny's entrance.

Pure anger took over the bitterness and pain that had welled up in her chest. She had been expecting exactly this and had thought she could cope with it; but now she was faced with the scene, Ginny found it affecting her more than she imagined it could. The anger helped though… she could focus on that and use it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" she shouted, feeling as though she could just hex them all violently without needing the answers… She could see _what_ they were doing (or had been), it was fairly obvious - but why here? Not that Ginny really wanted that answer either; she just wanted them all to hurt, as she had been hurt.

Draco looked coldly at her, Charlie couldn't meet her eye and the two girls just looked blank. Pushing his sweaty blond locks from out of his eyes, Draco drawled, "Hello Ginevra. How have you been?"

Well, she hadn't expected him to explain, not really. A Malfoy never had to explain himself, not to her, nor anyone. Ginny pierced him with a look of pure hatred. "You're disgusting, do you know that? Converting my brother and doing these filthy things, under my father's roof…"

Draco lowered the girl he was holding onto the bed, exposing the dark mark etched into his forearm. Ginny could barely look at the two women; it brought horrible thoughts to her mind, even looking at Charlie was too painful. She kept her eyes firmly fixed on Malfoy, who stood up and crossed his arms over his firm torso, which Ginny now noticed had fresh looking scratch wounds across it.

"This is none of your business Ginevra – please leave." There wasn't even an ounce of compassion in his voice, or his face. His gaze didn't even meet hers; she may as well have been a ghost the way he looked through her. Ginny felt as though she would burst into tears from the injustice of life, but she would never let herself cry, not in front of him - not anymore.

Instead she again drew on her rage. "My father is appalled at you too. Both of you." Ginny knew his face so well, and where others may have missed it, she saw the look in Draco's eyes change and knew she had finally caused him some pain. After all, there was once a time when Arthur's good opinion meant the world to the stormy eyed young man.

Charlie finally lifted his head, staring at her with red eyes and a haunted look on his face. He laughed bitterly. "I know exactly what father thinks of us little Gin… Percy has been telling everyone who will listen just how disappointed dad is."

Another stab of pain threatened to break her – Charlie, her own brother was laughing about this depravity. She knew how angry and upset her father had been when he heard the stories; they'd been waiting weeks for any news of the missing Weasley son… At times they had been expecting the worst, but never dreamed they would hear anything like the tales that were whispered to Arthur Weasley late at night.

However she knew that neither he, nor her mother would have said anything to Percy, her dad had barely said anything about it to even her. She was with them constantly, whereas the family were lucky to see Percy once every few months and were unlikely to discuss anything of consequence with him.

Draco turned angry all of a sudden and snarled at her, "What's your problem Ginevra? You don't like what I'm doing? Well tough - you have no power over me, no right to tell me what to do... I can do what I like, when I like and with whom I like. Why do you even care?"

He stepped closer so that he was towering over her, less than a foot between them. She was too close; Ginny knew that he'd pushed her too far, Draco had always been able to push her buttons in a way no-one else could.

She shouldn't have come, as soon as she overheard that other guest talking about their unexpected arrival not ten minutes ago, she should have gone out until Draco and Charlie had left. But part of her had stupidly thought that maybe she could get some answers, either discover a reason for all this madness or see Draco for the beast he was and move on with life.

Fighting back the inevitable tears - the other people in the room forgotten and all self control lost, Ginny shouted at him, "Because it hurts so much. Because I was yours and you didn't want me, I wasn't good enough and now all I can ever feel is inadequate…"

Not wanting to hear the mocking comment or laughter she was sure would follow such an outburst, Ginny fled the room, with its agony and humiliation – ran back down the short distance to her own room and slammed the door behind her.

The lock was broken on her door, lots of the house was in need of fixing. But it was difficult to get any sort of supplies these last few months, what with the war being so fierce.  
Hysterically she wedged a tiny stool behind the door, it wouldn't do to have her father find her in tears; Ginny hadn't been able to find him earlier to question his decision to let Malfoy and Charlie stay, but he may have heard her shouting and come to check on her. Her Mother was away tending to one of her grandchildren, which was handy - Ginny knew she'd be in her room in a flash if she thought her precious daughter was upset.

Almost as if mimicking her mood, the sky had darkened and what looked like a magical thunder storm was starting up. Such storms were a bad sign and probably meant that Voldemort was nearby. Vivid blue rain started falling heavily and lightening struck just outside the building. Several of the windows in her room were open and with another fork of lightening one of the panes shattered, showering the room with rain and glass, and causing Ginny to cry out with shock and cover her face with her arms.

She picked herself up from where she had huddled on the floor. Ginny squeezed past her bed to try and close the open windows and block up the empty frame with something. Suddenly the door burst open behind her, assuming it was her father she stayed silent and carried on trying to grab the catch without crushing her fingers.

Ginny thought she heard someone calling out behind her; seconds later strong hands grasped her arms and pulled her backwards, just as another bolt streaked in through the open window and hit the floor just where she had been standing.

Draco shouted over the deafening thunder, "This is Mark – he's from the department – let him deal with this." A year ago, Ginny would have done exactly as he told her – not now, she elbowed him in the ribs and went back to where a dark haired, stocky man had pulled out his wand.

Before he could do anything he was knocked senseless by one of the wildly swinging panes. Good thing too, as magic attracted this type of storm and he could have been badly hurt if struck by the lightening.

Desperately now, Ginny grabbed at the windows, more scared of being hit by the lightening than bruising her fingers. Draco, who she noticed had acquired a shirt from somewhere, silently helped her - his long arms more efficiently reaching out and catching hold of the handles.

When they had finally done all they could, another 'official' had removed Mark and a large canvas had been wedged in front of the broken gap, the two of them sank down to the floor beside the bed, legs entangled but ignored for now. "Please don't cry Freckle, you know I can't stand to see you sad."

Shocked out of her stupor by his old nickname for her, Ginny pushed back, away from him. "It's just rain." She said, scrubbing violently at her face with the sleeve of her cardigan. He leant forward, grabbed her wrist and knocked her arm away a harshly.

"You're cutting yourself – you have shards of glass all over your top. And tears aren't blue, Freckle. Most of the water on your face is clear."

"Stop calling me that." She said, gently brushing her cheek with her finger tips. They came away damp, with only the slightest hint of red and blue, blood and rain.  
She sighed, the anger had almost completely drained away now and a vast emptiness was taking its place. Ginny wished she could just curl up in a ball. "I thought I'd done crying over you." She whispered quietly.

"I don't understand why you'd cry over me at all Ginny. It's not as if..." Draco said no more, instead shaking his head and frowning at the floor.

She stared at him; was this an admission that he knew how awful he was, and that he didn't think he was worth crying over? Ginny couldn't understand how the same man who was so tender and thoughtful with her, so unsure of himself and self-conscious under his bravado could have turned out to be so heartless.  
Did he not know how much she had loved him - could he really not understand how the loss of the future they had talked of had scarred her to the very core? Even if he hadn't felt the same way, he had to know that such a betrayal would hurt her, had always said how full of life and emotion she was.

He was frowning at her, he seemed so angry – as if she'd done something wrong... Ginny felt that she had to let him know how much he'd damaged her, had to say something. She reached past him and pulled a small purple bound book from under her pillow. Opening it she took an old and battered piece of parchment from where it had been kept for almost ten months.

"I loved you Draco. Read your words again - can you not understand that after all we had… all I thought we had, this wounded me?"

He looked at the paper with wide eyes, when he reached out a hand to take the paper from her, he was trembling slightly. Opening it up, Draco glanced over familiar words. He would never forget the effort it had taken him to write them.

_'I can't do this anymore. I know what you are expecting from me, and maybe once I thought I could be the person you want… _

_But I have other, more important things to do with my life. I can't guarantee how they will turn out but I know I'd rather try them and fail than follow the path you would have me take._

_Please don't try to contact me, I have made up my mind and nothing you say or do can change it… this is goodbye._

_Yours,  
Draco'_

"Where did you get this?" He demanded, waving the parchment in front of Ginny's face.

Ginny scowled at his insensitivity. "Where you left it - on your writing bureau. I was early coming to your room, and instead of seeing you I found this note. It was pretty clear that you were going to join your father instead of going away with my family as planned."

Draco stood abruptly, still as graceful and feline as Ginny remembered him. He had curled a fist around the paper and growled out from behind a clenched jaw. "I waited for hours for you at the apparition point. In the end I had to find out from Potter that you and your family had already left and wouldn't return until the summer."

"What, you were going to hand me the note in front of my whole family? Humiliate me? You really _are_ evil." Ginny said the words out of spite rather than true belief.

He turned to her and she couldn't remember ever having seen him so angry. "Do you think I am working for them?" he hissed.

"No." Ginny shook her head, Harry had told her that Draco was a double agent, like Snape. Harry was one of the few people that stuck up for Draco; all he would ever say was Draco was a man of the order and worked tirelessly for good.

"In some ways that hurt me more than if you_ had_ turned to their side. I didn't even have the excuse that you left me for them. I knew it was just because I wasn't enough for you. You wanted someone else, anyone else..."

Draco leant down, grabbed her elbows and yanked her forcefully upwards until their faces were inches apart. "It's always been you that I wanted Ginny, it still is you and always will be... There will never be anyone else who can make me feel that way…" He shook her slightly as if to enforce the words.

"That letter was never meant for you."

"What?" Ginny floundered for words. Her breathing was erratic, and hope had sprung up, making her stomach flip over, but she didn't dare let herself believe – couldn't face the pain of her heart breaking again if she were mistaken. Tears were streaming down her face but she didn't care, she just wanted everything to make sense again.

Draco wiped the tears away with a calloused thumb and looked into her eyes. "I thought you'd left me. I never told you, but I was always so scared you would realise one day that I wasn't good enough for you. Yet you were patient with me and gave me so much hope; you were so full of life and love for me." He cupped her face gently with his hands, as if holding a priceless piece of sculpture.

"The letter was to my father, telling him that I wouldn't join him – that you were my future. I know you wanted me to just leave - to run away silently, but it was my responsibility to him. I had to show him I was leaving of my own accord… that it was _my_ choice and he couldn't make me stay."

Ginny stared at him; his cheeks were flushed with emotion. She had hardly ever seen him like this. "Why didn't you come after me then? You never contacted me."

Draco turned his gaze away. "I wish now that I had been less stubborn. I waited for you in my room and when you didn't turn up I went to the apparition point. After a while Potter turned up, apparently he'd been looking for me - he said you'd told everyone that we'd discussed it and decided it for the best if I didn't join you. Said he didn't believe you and wanted to know the truth from me… I thought you made up the lie because you'd had enough of me not being able to open up to you... I told Potter that you'd probably come to your senses and realised I wasn't what you needed."

Ginny shook her head. "I couldn't tell them about the letter – I still loved you and I defended you because I couldn't bear for them all to think so badly of you. I figured everyone could find out in their own time. But the first piece of news we had was from Harry four months later - you had turned spy for the order and that meant my family still thought the world of you. Until..."

Ginny pulled away from his grasp, falling back to the floor. For a brief second she had allowed herself to get lost in the moment, a beautiful escape from the harsh truths of the world. As Draco reached for her she frowned at him, scooting across the carpet until the wall hit her back and prevented any further retreat.

"Draco – you... all those women. Charlie..."

He squatted down in front of her, blocking her way and trapping her against the wall.  
"I returned that night and looked for the note. When I couldn't find it, I decided I had lost it somewhere in my rooms and wrote another, this one telling my father that I would take him up on his offer. As soon as they trusted me I went to Snape and asked him if I could join him as a double agent. He was dubious but eventually agreed – he has always been more of a father to me than my own."

Ginny interrupted him then, wanting to be heard before he could say something he would regret. "I know you have worked hard to help people – Harry goes mental if anyone says a bad word about you… And I understand that it must have been horrible living a double life; I guess that drove you to be the way you are… But even if you're saying you still want me – how could I ever forget what you've done with those women – what you made Charlie do."

Draco waved a hand dismissively. "I didn't make Charlie do anything he didn't want to – he volunteered. And anyway – the rumours going round are all full of shit. The only thing either of us have been doing with those girls is rescuing them, feeding and clothing them and sending them somewhere safe."

Ginny gawped at him. "But... I. I don't understand… there were witnesses?"

Draco gripped her upper arms again and looked down at her. "People who I paid to say they had seen me. People I trusted. Who do you think started the stories?"

She was so confused. "Why? Why would you do that if it's really not true – can I trust you? Why would Charlie not say anything? We thought so badly of him."

"Because we had parts to play – Voldemort was giving me these young women to dispose of. He had kept the men to work for him, but the women were useless and he has never had any desires of the flesh. If we were lucky no one else had got to them before me, but so many times – like today – the poor creatures had already be used or beaten by other Death Eaters. The more people that claimed they had seen me doing awful things to the girls the better.

"We couldn't risk telling anyone we cared about – anyone suspect was taken in for questioning. That's why Charlie didn't dare talk to any of your family.  
The people who told lies for us were already leaving the country or, like Pansy and Blaise, were already involved in such plans that Voldemort wouldn't doubt them. Harry spread some of the rumours for us, saying things in places he knew he would be overheard. He was already Voldemort's enemy so wasn't risking anything further."

"Harry knew?" Ginny couldn't believe that he could have known and not said anything.

"Yes Ginny, Harry knew. It tore him apart not being able to give your family any comfort when they were hurting so much but Dumbledore said we couldn't risk any lives that didn't need to be in jeopardy. He did his best to shut Percy up and gave your father whatever hope he could."

Ginny felt as though she couldn't take any more, everything was upside down and everything she had believed was in question. "Why are you telling me all of this now, when so many people have had to keep quiet?"

Draco smiled then; he had such a beautiful smile even though he rarely used it, now he was positively beaming. "Because Potter is going to set us all free…" He sobered slightly. "Voldemort is going to be dead within the hour"

"What if Harry can't? What if something goes wrong? You'll have to go back." Ginny realised that she believed everything Draco had told her, he had never lied to her in the past … but now that it seemed there was a chance of having Draco back with her, the thought of letting him go again scared her deeply.

"Potter won't lose. I know he won't. But regardless, I couldn't go back… nor could Charlie. We took the last two girls by force and apparated straight here – it was the only place we knew of with enough travelling wards to mask where we had gone and I knew that your Father would always take us in and ask questions later. Charlie's gone to find him to explain everything…"

Draco looked into her eyes and there was longing there, and so much hope. "Ginny I'm so sorry for all the pain I've caused you… I"

He was interrupted by loud noises from nearby; the rain storm had passed, and now there were bright lights of a different kind filling the sky. They both stood and looked out of the window, standing next to each other. Draco pulled away the canvas that they had forced there earlier meaning that they could see outside better.

"Fireworks?" Ginny said, "But those look so strange."

Next to her, Draco laughed… "It's Potter – the silly arse must have used Muggle fireworks as well as wizarding ones.… Just like him. We've won Ginny – we've won."

She looked up at him and took in his smile, his laughter – Ginny had missed him so much over the year. "It's over? Really finished?"

Draco's only answer was to pick her up and swing her round in a circle. The cries and cheers of joy that Ginny could now hear from inside and out brought yet more tears to her eyes, only this time tears of joy. He gasped and pulled back his sleeve, Ginny could see the terrible mark on his arm fade and disappear – Voldemort was truly gone.

"I love you Freckle." Ginny stared at Draco for a long moment; he fidgeted uncomfortably, something he never did. "Well, say something."  
Ginny couldn't believe what he'd said, Draco had never told her that he loved her – she'd often thought that he might, before everything went to hell, but he'd never actually said the words… Part of her thought that maybe she'd misheard him, he _had _spoken very quietly.

"What did you say?" she asked, unable to say anything else, after the day she had been through, Ginny found it hard to trust anything, not even her own ears.

"I said I love you." He looked so vulnerable, staring down at her, so exposed that her heart went out to him. "I love you too Draco – so very much."

He leant down and gave her a searing kiss; all the noises seemed to fade away, along with any of the pain and doubt lingering within her. Ginny melted into his kiss and returned it with a passion she had thought lost forever. Both of them knew that this time everything would be as it should and that nothing would ever come between them again.

When the rest of Ginny's family - including Charlie and a rather battered but happy and healthy Ron, Harry and Hermione - found her and Draco, they were still locked together in that embrace, like two halves re-united at last.

"Oh I do love planning weddings!" Molly murmured, hugging her husband and as many children as her arms could reach round.

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**Well, there you have it… I hope it wasn't too schmaltzy at the end there!**

**Didn't really put in much description or build up a lot of the characters and they were rather OOC but its AU anyway so I hope you don't mind too much!  
(Normally I try to give descriptions even though you all know who I'm taking about – I've tried to write the other 2 stories as if they were all new characters to you… not sure how successful I've been with that though!) **

**I didn't really want to make up any history or elaborate on the future after this as I quite like the mystery – it means you can make your own minds up!  
So there (probably) won't be any sequels or prequels but it all depends if I have any more strange dreams I guess!**


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